Anyone who has traveled extensively has had an opportunity in some of
the ocean voyages to witness the seasickness of animals, and many queer
stories are told from time to time of their actions at such times--how
lions become un-kinglike, monkeys ape humanity, and dogs are especially
woeful--and one realizes that human beings are not the only ones that
suffer from seasickness, by any means.
One hears a good deal about pangs that have filled the men and women
with woe, but little is said of the menageries brought to America every
year, or carried hither and yon in wave-tossed boats.
Lions and tigers may be majestic when they have unwavering earth or
rock against their paws, but a seasick cat of these tribes is as
forlorn as any man ever was, and doesn't look a bit more kingly than
a wet rabbit. Even its roars and growls have a weeping sound in them,
quite in keeping with the general appearance of the beast.
A monkey is as pitiable an object when it is seasick as any other beast
so stricken, and its forlorn facial expression is so humanlike and the
way it clasps its paws across its stomach is so natural that the man
who is not seasick necessarily sees something to laugh at in the misery
of the creature. Not so with the seasick man. If he sees a seasick
monkey he is sure to get very angry, thinking the poor thing is mocking
him.
It takes a dog to be woeful at sea. It has a way of doubling all up,
with its tail between its legs and its head hanging down that shows
a deep-seated pain. To free itself the dog goes through all sorts
of contortions. It will stretch out on the deck, groan and whine,
sometimes rising on its haunches and lifting its head and howling long
and miserably, as some dogs do at the sound of music.
Many other animals show signs of great distress when on the water in
rough weather, and any animal that is thoroughly seasick will show
almost human signs of distress and appeal for sympathy, yet one can
scarcely help laughing at their actions, even in the face of their
evident suffering.
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| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. |
| |
| Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant |
| form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. |
| |
| Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. |
| |
| Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs |
| and some illustrations have been moved closer to the text that |
| references them. |
| |
| Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, |
| _like this_. |
| |
| "... the shells of the eggs in class Aves."* (Page 152.) A |
| footnote is indicated but missing from the text. |
| |
| The Contents table was added by the transcriber. |
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